Mookie, Manny trade Monster blows at Fenway

Plus four other Statcast feats from Friday's action

May 19, 2018

Mookie Betts and Manny Machado put on an impromptu game of baseball H-O-R-S-E during the Orioles' 7-4 win Friday, positively peppering Fenway Park's Green Monster with laser shots. Both stars ripped three hits -- a single and two doubles for Machado, two doubles and a homer for Betts. The exit

Mookie Betts and Manny Machado put on an impromptu game of baseball H-O-R-S-E during the Orioles' 7-4 win Friday, positively peppering Fenway Park's Green Monster with laser shots. Both stars ripped three hits -- a single and two doubles for Machado, two doubles and a homer for Betts. The exit velocities? 113.3 mph, 108.9 mph and 105.6 mph for Machado; 108.5 mph, 108.5 mph and 104.3 mph for Betts.

Two of Machado's hits were barrels (balls hit with the most optimal combinations of exit velocity and launch angle), as were all three from Betts, who tied teammate J.D. Martinez for the MLB lead in that category. In addition, Machado's 113.3 mph double to left-center field off a Thomas Pomeranz curveball in the first inning was his hardest-hit ball of the 2018 season.

Whit Merrifield, Royals
Merrifield recorded a sprint speed between 29.5 feet per second and 29.9 feet per second -- near the elite 30 ft/sec mark -- on four different plays while picking up three hits and three stolen bases in a win over the Yankees. Merrifield entered the day with an average sprint speed of 29.0 ft/sec, a close second on the Royals behind Paulo Orlando (29.1).

One of Merrifield's steals was of third base in the first inning, as he jumped out to 34.7 foot secondary lead against Carsten Sabathia and flashed a 29.9 ft/sec sprint speed. Nonetheless, Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez made it a pretty close play by firing an accurate strike to third and recording a pop time of 1.44 seconds. That tied his own record for the fastest pop time in MLB this season.

Dustin Fowler, Athletics
Fowler hit his first career home run and his first double, the latter providing a go-ahead RBI on a fly ball to right-center field in the seventh inning at Toronto. Sensing an opportunity for two bags, Fowler turned on the jets. His 29.6 ft/sec sprint speed was close to the elite 30 ft/sec mark, and his time of 7.77 seconds from home to second was the fastest recorded by an A's player this year, and one of the 20 fastest across MLB.

Charlie Blackmon, Rockies
The Colorado center fielder put the finishing touches on the Rockies' 6-1 win over the Giants with a moonraking homer at AT&T Park. Blackmon's ninth-inning, two-run blast left his bat with a 45-degree launch angle, marking the highest homer he's hit since Statcast™ began tracking in 2015. It also tied Pedro Alvarez for the highest dinger by launch angle hit in the Majors in 2018.

Johnny Field, Rays
Field saved a run for Rays starter Blake Snell in the second inning, when the Angels' Chris Young looped a fly ball to shallow right field with two outs and a runner on third.Needing to cover 59 feet in 3.8 seconds, Field raced in for a sprawling 4-star catch, converting a 36 percent catch probability.